Health-Care Law Will Add $340 Billion To Deficit, New Study Finds By Lori Montgomery April 9 President Obama’s landmark health-care initiative, long touted as a means to control costs, will actually add more than $340 billion to the nation’s budget woes over the next decade, according to a new study by a Republican member of the board that oversees Medicare financing. The study is set to be released Tuesday by Charles Blahous, a conservative policy analyst whom Obama approved in 2010 as the GOP trustee for Medicare and Social Security. His analysis challenges the conventional wisdom that the health-care law,...

In 2009, Mitt Romney had a problem. He was running for the Republican presidential nomination, and the towering achievement of his governorship in Massachusetts — health-care reform — had been embraced by President Obama. Romneycare played almost no role in Romney’s 2008 presidential run, but the emergence of the issue onto the national agenda threatened to link Romney with a president Republicans had already come to loathe. His solution was simple. He seized upon the one major difference between his plan and Obama’s, which was that Obama favored a public health insurance option. The public plan had commanded enormous public...

Weak arguments presented by "team Obama" lawyers supporting Obama's healthcare legislation took a beating yesterday, and the beating continued even more so today. Please consider Day 3: ObamaCare at the Supreme Court by the Illinois Policy Institute. Today was the final marathon session of oral arguments over ObamaCare. It began this morning with the question of what to do with the rest of the law if the individual mandate is struck down, a very real possibility after yesterday's hearing. On this issue, both sides agree that if the mandate falls, at least some of the other provisions must fall with...

Howard Dean predicts Supreme Court will declare individual mandate unconstitutional By Jeff Poor - The Daily Caller 9:48 AM 03/26/2012 ADVERTISEMENT On Monday’s “CBS This Morning,” former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean broke with Democratic Party ranks once again on the issue of Obamacare. But this time, he did it in terms of how he thinks the Supreme Court will view the law. Host Charlie Rose asked Dean, a physician and former Democratic presidential candidate, if he thought the individual mandate would ultimately be declared unconstitutional. “I actually think that’s what they’re most likely to do before, of course, we’ve heard...

<p>I will be live-blogging the Supreme Court hearings on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act from March 26 to 28, beginning at 10 a.m. on Monday. I invite readers and NRO contributors to chip in with their observations. I will also incorporate Twitter feeds from various people from the health-care and legal worlds who are covering the case.</p>

“If the government can just order you to buy something, and fine you if you don’t” – the way the individual mandate of Obamacare requires every American to buy government-approved health insurance and fines them if they don’t comply – “they can order you to do anything,” Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said during an appearance on C-SPAN’s “Newsmaker” on Sunday. Cuccinelli, the first attorney general to file a lawsuit challenging Obamacare, said out of 16 judges that have heard the lawsuit so far, only one has ruled that the fine amounts to a tax. “Of 16 judges, one found...

President Obama said, "The package we've put together" will "start bending the cost curve on health care" and "cut the deficit by a trillion dollars." Even a sympathetic Congressional Budget Office has finally put the nail in the coffin of that howler. At the time Obama made the claim, we all knew it was specious, and study after study came out showing just how fraudulent it was. There was the double counting on Medicare, the "Doc Fix" scam and a host of others. When Rep. Paul Ryan asked the CBO to rescore Obamacare with more accurate assumptions, it didn't...

Gallup: 72% of All Americans and 56% of Democrats Say Obamacare Mandate Unconstitutional By Terence P. Jeffrey February 27, 2012 Subscribe to Terence P. Jeffrey's posts Kathleen Sebelius Barack Obama HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and President Barack Obama at the White House on Feb. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (CNSNews.com)- Seventy-two percent of American adults and 56 percent of self-professed Democrats say that the provision in the health-care law signed by President Barack Obama that requires individuals to purchase health insurance or pay a fine is unconstitutional, says the Gallup Poll. In March, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear cases...

PINEVILLE, La. (BP) -- A Baptist college has joined the list of schools and universities suing the federal government in opposition to the Obama administration's contraceptive/abortion mandate, making it clear the issue is not simply a Catholic one. Louisiana College -- affiliated with the Louisiana Baptist Convention -- filed suit Monday (Feb. 20) in federal court, saying the mandate violates the U.S. Constitution by, among other things, entangling the government in religious matters and forcing the college to violate its "sincerely held religious beliefs regarding abortion." The convention is part of the Southern Baptist Convention. "The time for silence is...

...JoanWalsh at Salon writes that she was raised Catholic, but has since turned into "a secularfeministliberaldemocrat." Last Friday evening, when Obama's supporters were still clinging to their belief that his announcement of a compromise would steal all the wind out of the bishops' sails, she asked this: Why did we spend 10 days listening to prominent Catholics, including even some liberals and Democrats, insist that the White House had overreached and trampled on "religious freedom" - in this case, the "freedom" of the Catholic hierarchy to impose rules that even most Catholics don't live by? ("Catholic tribalism and the contraceptive...

The recent Obama mandate for universal birth control gave the Republicans an opportunity to fight for individual liberty -- and they missed it by a mile. Instead of attacking government-imposed health care as a violation of liberty, they only selected a minute fraction of the leviathan and subjected it to very narrow criteria. This was an opportunity to aim for the heart of ObamaCare, but critics asked for only a minor adjustment -- and that's all they got. Government-mandated health care violates individual rights. The objection of Catholics to the funding of contraceptives is just one example of forcing people...

EWTN Sues U.S. Government To Stop Contraception Mandate Network Asks Court to Stop Order to Pay for Immoral Services Irondale, AL (EWTN) – EWTN Global Catholic Network filed a lawsuit February 9 in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Alabama against the Department of Health & Human Services, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and other government agencies seeking to stop the imposition of the contraception mandate as well as asking the court for a declaratory judgment that the mandate is unconstitutional. EWTN is the first Catholic organization to file suit since the final HHS rules were published by the Obama administration on...

HANCEVILLE, Alabama, February 9, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Lawyers for the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) say that the broadcasting network has taken the Obama administration to court over a mandate forcing Catholic employers to pay for birth control, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty announced that it had filed suit Thursday morning on behalf of EWTN, considered the largest religious media network in the world. “The federal government cannot force people to violate their religion like this,” said Mark Rienzi, Senior Counsel at the Becket Fund and a constitutional law professor at the Catholic University of...

It is a rare moment indeed when faith denominations of all stripes unite together in common cause, and it is rarer still when that cause is a political one, with a sole piece of legislation as its principal target. But when that law eviscerates the very foundation of religious liberty in America as protected under the First Amendment, it should not be surprising that Catholics and Jews, evangelical Christians, and mainline Lutherans alike find common cause in defense of their liberties.Such is the case with the firestorm of opposition to Obamacare and the Obama Administrationâ€™s attack on religious liberty. Under...

Former Democratic congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper, a Catholic from Erie, Pennsylvania, cast a crucial vote in favor of Obamacare in 2010. She lost her seat that November in part because of her controversial support of Obamacare. But Dahlkemper said recently that she would have never voted for the health care bill had she known that the Department of Health and Human Services would require all private insurers, including Catholic charities and hospitals, to provide free coverage of contraception, sterilization procedures, and the "week-after" pill "ella" that can induce early abortions.

Catholic leaders upped the ante Monday, threatening to challenge the Obama administration over a provision of the new health care law that would require all employers, including religious institutions, to pay for birth control. As CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer reports, it could affect the presidential elections. Catholic leaders are furious and determined to harness the voting power of the nation’s 70 million Catholic voters to stop a provision of President Barack Obama’s new heath car reform bill that will force Catholic schools, hospitals and charities to buy birth control pills, abortion-producing drugs and sterilization coverage for their employees. “Never before,...

President Obama and his radical feminist enforcers have had it in for Catholic medical providers from the get-go. It's about time all people of faith fought back against this unprecedented encroachment on religious liberty. First, they came for the Catholics. Who's next? This weekend, Catholic bishops informed parishioners of the recent White House edict forcing religious hospitals, schools, charities and other health and social service providers to provide "free" abortifacient pills, sterilizations and contraception on demand in their insurance plans -- even if it violates their moral consciences and the teachings of their churches. NARAL, NOW, Ms. Magazine and the...

In politics, the timing is often the message. On Jan. 20 — three days before the annual March for Life — the Obama administration announced its final decision that Catholic universities, hospitals and charities will be compelled to pay for health insurance that covers sterilization, contraceptives and abortifacients. Preparing for the march, Catholic students gathered for Mass at Verizon Center. The faithful held vigil at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Knights of Columbus and bishops arrived to trudge in the cold along the Mall. All came to Washington in time for their mocking.

Over the weekend, the Catholic Church’s letter went beyond simply issuing oppositional rhetoric to media. Instead, priests read an open note to congregations across the country, dubbing the administration‘s take on women’s health and religious violations as an attack on their faith. In the letter, Bishops highlighted what they called “an alarming and serious matter,“ as their words contended that the federal government has ”dealt a heavy blow” to the Catholic population.

Obama lost my vote yesterday when he declined to expand the exceedingly narrow conscience exemptions proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services. The issue of conscience protections is so foundational, I do not see how I ever could, in good conscience, vote for this man again. I do not come at this issue as a Catholic special pleader, who wants only to protect my own, although it was a little bracing to realize that the president’s decision yesterday essentially told us, as Catholics, that there is no room in this great country of ours for the institutions our...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won't hear arguments from a conservative watchdog group that wants Justice Elena Kagan disqualified from deciding the constitutionality of President Barack Obama's national health care overhaul. Freedom Watch asked the high court for time to demand Kagan's recusal or disqualification during arguments on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The law is aimed at extending health insurance coverage to more than 30 million previously uninsured people and would, by 2019, leave just 5 percent of the population uninsured, compared with about 17 percent today, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Those who have implied that the Presidentâ€™s health care law will establish â€śdeath panels,â€ť have encountered excessive criticism. Yet, more and more information is being released identifying that rationing of care will in fact occur, and that it will be done by government bureaucracies.For example, a phone call into The Mark Levin Show on WLS 890 from a Chicago neurosurgeon last month revealed that a Health and Human Services (HHS) document, associated with the Obama Administrationâ€™s federal health law, will inhibit patients over the age of 70 from receiving neurological care. Instead of receiving â€śadvanced neurosurgical care,â€ť â€śunits,â€ť (meaning patients),...

“I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes,” President Obama, September 12, 2008 Beginning January 1, 2013, ObamaCare imposes a 3.8% Medicare tax on unearned income of “high-income” taxpayers which could apply to proceeds from the sale of single family homes, townhouses, co-ops, condominiums, and even rental income, depending on your individual circumstances and any capital gains tax exclusions. Importantly, the “high income” thresholds are not...

Oral arguments on President Barack Obama's sweeping U.S. healthcare overhaul will last 5-1/2 hours spread over three days from March 26-28, the Supreme Court said on Monday. The Supreme Court last month agreed to hear the 5-1/2 hours of oral arguments, one of the lengthiest arguments in recent years. There have been similar marathon sessions in a handful of big cases dating back over the past 70 years. The court said it would hear one hour of arguments on March 26 on whether the legal challenges to the requirement that all Americans buy insurance must wait until after that part...

Supreme Court sets aside three days for healthcare argumentsBy Sam Baker - 12/19/11 11:40 AM ET The Supreme Court will hear arguments on President Obama's healthcare law over a three-day span in late March. The schedule further confirms the universal expectation that the court will issue a ruling on the healthcare law next June, at the height of the 2012 campaign. The Supreme Court will begin on March 26 with one hour of arguments on whether it can reach a decision on the health law before 2014. There is a possibility that a separate federal law prevents the courts from...

President Barack Obama has not yet decided whether to go forward with a proposed regulation under the health care law he signed last year that would force Catholic individuals and institutions to act against the teachings of the Catholic church. In August, Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius proposed a regulation--that would take affect next fall--that would require all health care plans to cover sterilizations and all FDA-approved contraceptives, including abortifacients. The proposed regulation includes a very narrow religious exemption that does not cover individual Catholics, or Catholic universities, hospitals or charitable institutions.

The key to the Supreme Court's upcoming ruling will be clear recognition of constitutional alternatives to Obamacare. On November 14, the Supreme Court granted the Writ of Certiorari to hear the appeal of the cases testing the constitutionality of Obamacare. The resulting decision will mark an historic watershed not only in the restoration of constitutional jurisprudence, but in fundamental, market reform of the entire entitlement state... --snip-- While the decision of simpatico Judge Laurence Silberman upholding the Obamacare mandate is somewhat troubling, that reflected Silberman's poorly reasoned conclusion that he was bound as a lower court judge by the Supreme...

Even if ObamaCare survives Supreme Court scrutiny next spring, its trials will be far from over. That's because the law has a major glitch that threatens its basic functioning. It's so problematic, in fact, that the Obama administration is now brazenly trying to rewrite the law without involving Congress. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act offers "premium assistance"—tax credits and subsidies—to households purchasing coverage through new health-insurance exchanges. This assistance was designed to hide a portion of the law's cost to individuals by reducing the premium hikes that individuals will face after ObamaCare goes into effect in 2014. (If...

Democrats on Capitol Hill are worried that the Supreme Court will rule against President Obama’s healthcare reform law. Over the last couple weeks, congressional Democrats have told The Hill that the law faces danger in the hands of the Supreme Court, which The New York Times editorial page recently labeled the most conservative high court since the 1950s. While the lawmakers are not second-guessing the administration’s legal strategy, some are clearly bracing for defeat. “Of course I’m concerned,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). The justices “decide for insurance companies, they decide for oil companies, they decide for the wealthy too...

div class="article_body"> The case for Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan recusing herself from voting on the upcoming decision regarding Obamacare would seem to be an open and shut one. Emails show that she harbored definite opinions about the law while serving as Obama's solicitor general.The Examiner: At her confirmation hearing in 2010, now-Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan that she "was not" asked at any time to give her opinion on the merits of the Obamacare legislaton. Newly released emails suggest that whether or not she was asked, Kagan was not shy about her enthusiasm for the bill that eventually...

The Justice Department must disclose all documents relating to any work Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan may have been involved in regarding the formulation of the legal defense for President Barack Obama’s signature health care law so a fair assessment of whether she should step aside from the case can be made, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said. Lee’s comments came in a question and answer session following his speech to the Federalist Society’s National Lawyers Convention. Before ascending to the Supreme Court, Kagan had served as the nation’s solicitor general, responsible for representing the federal government before the Supreme Court....

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - An expert on judicial issues says U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan should recuse herself from the multistate challenge to President Barack Obama's health care reform. In a "white paper" released Wednesday, Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network argues that Kagan, as solicitor general, was directly involved in the defense of the new federal health care law and that she should therefore dismiss herself from any consideration of its legality before the nation's high court. Severino is chief counsel and policy director for the Judicial Crisis Network, a Washington-based group committed to upholding the Constitution...

Complete title: New Documents Show Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s Comments on Obamacare Legislation While Serving as Solicitor General Kagan: “I hear they have the votes!! Simply amazing.” Washington, DC -- November 10, 2011 Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained three new documents that provide additional information about Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan and the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) while she served as solicitor general. Justice Kagan has said she was not actively involved in the Department of Justice (DOJ) discussions regarding Obamacare. Moreover, the...

Three years before the new health care law takes full effect, a survey of employers has found 30 percent of them are thinking about dropping coverage, in part because most employees will have an alternative -- government-subsidized insurance exchanges. McKinsey & Company commissioned a survey of 1,329 private sector employers in February and found that three out of 10 respondents who said their companies offered employer-sponsored health insurance said they would "definitely" or "probably" drop coverage in the years following 2014, the year the Affordable Care Act takes full effect. "The employer knows there's no reason to provide private, expensive...

Republicans seized on a new report showing a spike in insurance premiums to argue President Obama’s healthcare law has failed to reduce cost. The report from the Kaiser Family Foundation, which found that the cost of employer-provided family plans increased by 9 percent to an average of $15,073 in 2011, put the White House on defense a day after it became more likely that the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the law before the 2012 election. It showed healthcare costs are rising much faster than U.S. wages and salaries or the rate of inflation. The steep costs could...

Health law likely to send premiums through roof, state saysBy Catherine Candisky The Columbus Dispatch Wednesday September 21, 2011 4:12 AM A new report projects that the cost of health-insurance premiums in Ohio could increase by as much as 150 percent — or drop by 40 percent — in 2014, when key provisions of the new federal health-care law kick in. The analysis was commissioned by the Ohio Department of Insurance to determine how the Affordable Care Act would affect premiums. It found that Ohioans who buy individual policies would have their costs rise the most. Rates also are expected...

Dean: Employers will drop coverage under Obamacare Former Democratic National Committee Chairman, and doctor, Howard Dean backed a McKinsey & Co. survey today that found that almost a third of private-sector employers will drop their employee health insurance coverage when Obamacare's government-managed insurance exchanges come online. Dean told Morning Joe, "The fact is it is very good for small business. There was a McKinsey study, which the Democrats don't like, but I do, and I think its true. Most small businesses are not going to be in the health insurance business anymore after this thing goes into effect." http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/dean-employers-will-drop-coverage-under-obamacare

Even though Ron Paul clarified himself at the Tea Party debate, and explained that he doesn’t think those who can’t afford medical care should be laid out on the curb to die, the Left went about painting his answer as morally abominable. Before we deal with their abuse of Christian doctrine, let’s see what Paul said: "I practiced medicine before we had Medicaid, in the early 1960s, when I got out of medical school. I practiced at Santa Rosa Hospital in San Antonio, and the churches took care of them. We never turned anybody away from the hospitals. And we’ve...

CONCORD, New Hampshire, September 14, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it is bypassing state authorities in New Hampshire to restore Planned Parenthoodâ€™s funding directly. Earlier this summer the stateÂ’s Executive Council voted to redirect Planned Parenthoodâ€™s $1.8 million share of Medicaid funding to clinics that do not perform abortions. Immediately after, however, the Obama administration threatened to deprive all of New Hampshireâ€™s Medicaid facilities of federal funding unless the Executive Council reversed its decision. Kansas and Indiana have received similar threats this year. Now the Obama administration says it has bypassed the Executive Council and awarded...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The requirement in the national health-care overhaul law that individuals buy health insurance is unconstitutional, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled Tuesday in a question that the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to settle. The suit decided by Judge Christopher C. Conner in Harrisburg is one of more than 30 lawsuits nationwide that have been filed over the 2010 law that is President Barack Obama's signature initiative. Conner, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2002 by President George W. Bush, said the individual mandate is an unconstitutional extension of authority granted to the federal...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Nearly one of every 10 midsized or big employers expects to stop offering health coverage to workers once federal insurance exchanges start in 2014, according to a new survey from a large benefits consultant. Towers Watson also found in a survey completed last month that an additional 20 percent of the companies are unsure about what they will do. Another big benefits consultant, Mercer, found in a June survey of large and smaller employers that 8 percent are either "likely" or "very likely" to end health benefits once the exchanges start. Employer-sponsored health insurance has long been...

Who can forget that rare moment of honesty during the campaign to pass Obamacare when Nancy Pelosi said, "We have to pass the bill in order for you to find out what's in it"? Now we have it, and almost daily there are new revelations about the staggering extent to which our private lives and individual freedoms have been stomped on. We learn now that free birth control in the form of contraceptives, morning-after pills, and sterilization is part of the grand Obamacare socialist dream-come-true. The health insurance that Obamacare mandates that all employers provide and that all citizens acquire...

A few hundred billion dollars here, a few hundred billion dollars there — sooner or later we're talking about the real cost of Barack Obama's new socialized medicine monstrosity. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once said that "we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it." Apparently, passing the legislation was also a prerequisite to determining its actual price tag — which as it turns out is much higher than anyone fathomed. The latest cost overrun associated with ObamaCare? A $500 billion "error" associated with insuring the spouses and children of new entitlement...

(CNSNews.com) - The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Tuesday that it has awarded $28.8 million to 67 community health centers with funds from the Obamacare health reform law. Of that $28.8 million, "approximately $8.5 million will be used by 25 New Access Point awardees to target services to migrant and seasonal farm workers," Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Spokeswoman Judy Andrews told CNSNews.com. HRSA is a part of HHS. Andrews said that grant recipients will not check the immigration status of people seeking services. “Health centers do not, as a matter of routine practice, ask...

Supposedly, one of the main purposes behind Obamacare was to provide affordable health care coverage for every American family. Yeah, right! Since the passage of Obamacare, healthcare costs have climbed higher than they have ever been. More and more employers are reducing the amount and type of coverage they provide to their employees while increasing how much the employees pay. Deductibles are getting so high that many families can’t reach the limit and have to pay everything out of pocket. And then Obamacare mandated that every American WILL purchase health insurance or be penalized and fined by the IRS when...

Health insurance plans must cover birth control as preventive care for women, with no copays, the Obama administration said Monday in a decision with far-reaching implications for health care as well as social mores. The requirement is part of a broad expansion of coverage for women's preventive care under President Barack Obama's health care law. Also to be covered without copays are breast pumps for nursing mothers, an annual "well-woman" physical, screening for the virus that causes cervical cancer and for diabetes during pregnancy, counseling on domestic violence, and other services. "These historic guidelines are based on science and existing...

While the Obama Administration halts deportations to work on its secret amnesty plan, hospitals across the U.S. are getting stuck with the exorbitant tab of medically treating illegal immigrants and some are finally demanding compensation from the federal government. The group that represents most of the nation’s hospitals and medical providers recently urged President Obama to work with Congress to reimburse them for the monstrous cost of treating illegal immigrants. Federal law requires facilities to “treat and stabilize individuals” regardless of their immigration status, but federal support for the services remains “virtually nonexistent,” according to a letter submitted by the...

WASHINGTON — Alarmed by a shortage of primary care doctors, Obama administration officials are recruiting a team of “mystery shoppers” to pose as patients, call doctors’ offices and request appointments to see how difficult it is for people to get care when they need it. The administration says the survey will address a “critical public policy problem”: the increasing shortage of primary care doctors, including specialists in internal medicine and family practice. It will also try to discover whether doctors are accepting patients with private insurance while turning away those in government health programs that pay lower reimbursement rates. Federal...

A good doctor can be hard to find and, as anyone who’s looked for a new primary care physician knows, finding one who’s accepting new patients can be next to impossible.But the Obama administration, alarmed by the “critical public policy problem” of a growing shortage of primary care physicians, is embarking on a secret shopper investigation aimed at getting a handle on just how hard it is to get an appointment with a doctor who specializes in internal medicine, The New York Times reported Monday.Beginning in the next few months, people posing as patients call doctors’ offices and requests appointments,...